It's usually embedded in our memory banks for the rest of our lives -- the circumstances and emotions surrounding the first time we had a period.
Perhaps we felt timid, scared or embarrassed. We were certain that we were different, in some crucial and perhaps life-threatening way, from
everyone else. Maybe we told our best friend, but maybe we didn't. We felt awkward about all the "now you're a woman" overtures in the health movie we saw at school, and even more awkward dealing with the products (and the cramps, ugh!) that were so unfamiliar. And boys seemed, more than ever, like an alien species.
Later in life it's a story we freely trade with our girlfriends, laughingly and knowingly, because it's such a shared experience. In fact, a thread on Empowher about first periods got quite a bit of response:
https://www.empowher.com/community/share/my-period-story-whats-yours
That's exactly the kind of thing that author Rachel Kauder Nalebuff set out to capture in “My Little Red Book.” It's just a small book of 92 collected women's stories about their first period and the circumstances around it. The entries are each a few paragraphs long, and they come from women of all ages and locations.
A funny paragraph excerpt from the NYTimes Health story about the book:
"The author Patricia Marx was furious at her first period, having decided by age 15 that she was going to be lucky enough to skip the whole thing. Cecily von Ziegesar, author of the “Gossip Girl” series, was one of untold thousands to be flummoxed by a box of applicator-free O.B. tampons. The runner Kathrine Switzer had to prime the pump with calories: only after she gained 15 pounds with peanut butter and chocolate milk did she begin to menstruate."
Here's the full story:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/24/health/views/24book.html?_r=1&ref=health
The author's on a book tour now; I can only imagine the comments and stories she's getting from her book-readings and signing audiences!
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i haven't gotten my period but my twin sister marcia aka sisi has and my younger sister emma me n my sis r 14 n me younger sis is 12 this story takes place when we were 13 so any way the day my twin got her period was on halloween and we were alone and sorta lost and to make it worse she was complaning bout how her tummy was hurting so much so anyway we kept asking people that looked nice if thhey knew where the street we lived on was then my sis started crying i was like OMFG! what is wrong! so she said it was her tummy so i rolled my eyes and kept going sisi sat on the curb clutching her tummy crying really hard thats when i realised something was really wrong so i thought of what could make her tummy hurt so much so i thought someone could have poisoned one of the candies she ate hey if people stick needles in them what about poison so i told her my guess and she said one of her candies did taste wierd so i yelled "help my sister is poisoned!" so i turned back to her and she was scremming "IM BLEEDING!!!!" so while we were screming some highscool girls were laughing at us so i told them what happened so they said "i think your friend got her period" so i turned like 50 million shades of red i reconized one of the girls as our neihbor shelby she took us home and told our parents what happened so our mom didnt think we had a good understanding of periods so she gave us the talk "again" so i hoped u liked my sisters story and hope you dont get "the curse" on halloween
August 19, 2009 - 9:21pmThis Comment
I don't remember exactly when I got my period. I think it was sometime in 6th grade. i remebering I had pads in my back pack and me and my friends, along with some other kids, were staying after to practice this thing for music class. I was also going to a sleep over afterwards. I got something out of my backpack and my friends see my pads. That's how they found out and it was awkward because other people in my grade overheard my friends. I never even told my mother when I got my period. She found out one day though. This was sometime in 6th grade too, the day I got my period I think or close too it. In 6th grade our main teacher taught us everything except for history, so we had to go to a class room next door where a different teacher taught us. I got my period that day so during that hour I knew it was time for a pad change, but I didn't have any. My history teacher was too old to have any periods so she wouldn't have had any and my main teacher was young, but he was a male so that ruled him out. Anyways, so it bagan to stink pretty bad and I knew it was me, but no one else could pinpoint it to me, luckily. Luckily after that class we got to go home so I waited it out. All I remember is I come home from school, after a little while then my mother calls me upstairs and she somehow found out. I don't know how exactly but I can't help but wonder if my history teacher or my main teacher found out and called home. As for leakage stories, in 12 grade I got my period again and it caught me off guard. Everytime during lunch I would go to the bathroom so I noticed the blood and it soaked through the pants, but the area did not yet spread to my but area or anything. I couldn't exactly see if anyone else could see the blood but I took precaution and took my winter jacket and wore it, it was big enough to cover the butt area. This was halfway through the day too and then after lunch I had study hall with a guy who was a gym techer, and I had him with sports health. This day was the day all the scholarships were due in and one of the ladies in the office had a question about the way I arranged my applications and so she called my study hall teacher and he then calls my name. I answered and started walkign to the office but he didn't here me so I walked back to the area he was in so he could see me, but I was careless then and I didn't stand straight up, I kind of had my legs spread open a little and I think my study hall teacher/teacher seen the blood:( No one else knew I was on my period though, they just thought I was cold, but it was awkward walking around the school with a winter jacket on. Then one tiem this year I got my period and I thought I was well protected for the night but I guess not, and I woke up with a period stain on my pajamas, a noticeable one. I just got clothes and marched to the bathroom. The bathroom wasn't empty and a couple of girls notice the stain but I didn't care because they were girls.
March 14, 2009 - 1:52pmThis Comment
I really don't remember when my period started, just that my mom kept bugging me about whether or not it had. She had me scared to death of the event! But, I do remember too many embarrassing moments, like being at a beach party in my best white jeans when disaster happens. Frankly, I really couldn't wait for menopause, LOL!
What are your early memories of "the plague?"
March 4, 2009 - 7:10pmThis Comment